So we have a 5 (or 6, depending on which date you look at) years old patent.
Where are the devices?

I'm sure you know, but let's just lay it out anyway - patents like this are often filed to prevent the competition doing something, rather than being used for their intended purpose (protecting an innovative product from being copied).

My brother has some experience with this - his employer will (or used to, at least) pay employees for patent submissions if they are successful. The company funds the legal costs of the patent application etc. He applied for a couple, one of which was basically a glass screen that changes contrast / colour depending on what's behind it so that the text remains visible (think bus stop advert). To my mind that's not novel, and it doesn't pass the "not obvious to someone who does this kind of thing every day" test either, but they thought it was viable.

Note that this wasn't even some kind of clever mechanism / low level implementation of how to do it, just the idea that it could be done.

I have some experience with that too. My former employer ran a similar scheme. £x for a patent application, another £x if the patent gets granted. I had a patent application that for some reason was accepted as "provisional". I did not even know such a thing existed and apparently neither did the company's top management, so they did not know what to do. Eventually they paid me £x/2, with the rest to be paid when the application gets promoted to a full status. I was supposed to provide some more details for that to happen. But I had a moment of epiphany and decided not to go along with that. So I did my little bit in preventing my former employer from becoming a patent troll

@OVK, it does not need to be expensive. The Optimum keyboard is expensive because it uses a lot of small displays. A phone could use a single, cheap display covering the entire keyboard background. Ideally a resistive one so it would be activated by mere pressure.

But what am I taking about. There is a patent now exactly to prevent that happening.

Not to mention that it is all off-topic. Sorry, Chen.

__________________In particle accelerators atoms are indeed not only touching each others. But banging together in a massive explosive orgasm.
-- nieldk in a TMO post

- The Maximus, which is a rather big keyboard - with slightly over sized keys - where each single key is a an individual OLED mini screen.

- The Popularis which is a much more compact / laptop like and which is basically a keyboard overlaid over a flat pannel display (thus much cheaper to produce than the Maximus). This also makes possible to use reasonably sized keys, and to have the whole space bar reconfigurable.

@chenliangchen I already have a Jolla tablet, and I'd like to help your project by pointing out two things that I think you should consider fixing in your own product:

1. The Jolla tablet is made of a very bad quality plastic. I keep my Jolla tablet in a sleeve and hardly use it these days, but the plastic is still deteriorating. The build quality is poor: the device is squeaking.

2. The battery life is sub-par. My 4-year-old Core i7 laptop lasts longer on battery than the Jolla tablet. Not sure if this is a software or hardware issue, but it needs to be looked into.

Thank you! Actually this is what I am hesitating at the moment. And I agree with both points.

Regarding point 1, what we can do is using a better material or component when assembling. For example, solder the USB port with a better and more solid way, and using better plastic. I'm more worried about being a structural issue - which can't be fixed...

For 2, since hardware is not easy to change at this stage, we can only for on software side. Like user Explit mentioned, we can change the BIOS to a power saving option, and ask Jolla to further optimising the OS. But again, the HW limitation puts the cap too low.

P.S: As for this week, we are (finally) moving forward for the red edition, we are preparing for the marketing materials, and found out there is no way taking screenshot on SFOS 2.1, even with 3rd party app...

P.S: As for this week, we are (finally) moving forward for the red edition, we are preparing for the marketing materials, and found out there is no way taking screenshot on SFOS 2.1, even with 3rd party app...

Hold volume up + volume down, works for me on ONDA, which is based on Jolla Tablet firmware.

Now the situation is doubtful - HW has issues and can't improve, SW isn't stable for basic functions. It puts too many risks in terms of aftersale and warranty. Any hints?

I can only comment on a small subset of the whole issue. As far as warranty issues (or the general aftersales process) are concerned, according to the legislation in my country you wouldn't be responsible for features you don't promise. While "taking a screenshot" might seem the most basic thing for those who are used to it, it will not be a warranty issue as long as there's no text on the box or in the manual that states "easily take screenshots by using...". (IIRC, the earlier versions of SFOS didn't have a built-in way of taking screenshots either.) Same for battery life. Some people might expect more, but if it's given in the specs, then it's not an issue.

I can't comment on things like stability of the USB port, simply because I don't have any such structural problems on my 2 Jolla tablets. Maybe it isn't as bad at all.

As for risk management: I would guess that many potential customers know SailfishOS, its strengths and weaknesses, very well. They will be forgiving when it comes to software issues.

I can only comment on a small subset of the whole issue. As far as warranty issues (or the general aftersales process) are concerned, according to the legislation in my country you wouldn't be responsible for features you don't promise. While "taking a screenshot" might seem the most basic thing for those who are used to it, it will not be a warranty issue as long as there's no text on the box or in the manual that states "easily take screenshots by using...". (IIRC, the earlier versions of SFOS didn't have a built-in way of taking screenshots either.) Same for battery life. Some people might expect more, but if it's given in the specs, then it's not an issue.

I can't comment on things like stability of the USB port, simply because I don't have any such structural problems on my 2 Jolla tablets. Maybe it isn't as bad at all.

As for risk management: I would guess that many potential customers know SailfishOS, its strengths and weaknesses, very well. They will be forgiving when it comes to software issues.

What we will do for hardware, as mentioned, we will improve some common problems that was reported by the Jolla Tab users, as well as the assembling quality.

Regarding SW, as this will be solely on Jolla's side, I believe they can improve it into another level.

BTW as for today, we have adjusted and validated the toolings for this tablet (find attached pic). IT WILL HAPPEN and 128GB is coming!!